Police numbers at 10-year low

Force budget cuts and a growing population mean there is just one police
officer for every 420 people as numbers hit a 10-year-low.

There were 131,837 officers in the 43 police forces at the end of SeptemberPhoto: Alamy

By Wesley Johnson, Home Affairs Correspondent

12:01PM GMT 31 Jan 2013

The ratio of officers to the public has increased by almost 10% since the coalition Government came to power, when there was a police officer for every 389 people.

Since 2010 police numbers have fallen by 10,000 while the population has increased by more than one million.

There are now fewer police officers in England and Wales than at any point in the last 10 years and MPs warned the decline was faster than predicted.

All but one of the 43 forces saw a drop in numbers in the 12 months to last September, the Home Office figures showed, with only Surrey increasing its ranks by 20.

Steve Williams, chairman of the Police Federation, said: “Not only does Britain have the lowest number of police officers in over a decade, but while this number has been reducing, the population has been increasing – making the gap in policing per population head even wider.

“The Government must question whether a reduced police service that operates only on a cost basis is what the public expects.”

Overall, there were 131,837 officers in the 43 police forces at the end of September, down 4,001 or 2.9% on the previous year and fewer than at any point since 2002.

This compared with 141,631 officers in March 2010, Home Office figures showed.

Over the same period, the ratio of officers to members of the public increased from 1:389 to 1:426, as the population rose from 55.2 million to more than 56.2 million.

Theresa May, the Home Secretary, is bringing in the most wide-ranging reforms of the police in more than 30 years, including a £4,000 pay cut for new constables, and forces are facing 20% budget cuts.

Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, said: “Under Theresa May's policies there are fewer police on the streets and fewer crimes being solved.

“These figures are far worse than Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary predicted and take police numbers backwards a decade.”

She went on: “These huge cuts to policing are making it harder for the police to catch criminals and deliver justice. 30,000 fewer crimes were solved under this Government in the last year, including 7,000 crimes of violence against the person.

Chief Constable Sir Peter Fahy, the lead on workforce development for the Association of Chief Police Officers, said: “With 80% of police budgets used on human resources and substantial cuts to policing budgets, it is not surprising that numbers of officers and staff have reduced.

“Workforce morale is key during this period of change and ensuring our staff are rewarded and properly trained to do the job at hand is integral.

“Dealing with ambitious staff frustrated by the lack of promotion opportunities and ensuring the service continues to develop and nurture the brightest and the best that are truly representative of the communities we serve is one of the biggest challenges that we face.”

The biggest falls came in Dorset and Warwickshire, where police officer numbers fell 5.9% to 1,337 and 5.9% to 827 respectively over the last year.

Damian Green, the Policing Minister, said: "Our police reforms are working, crime is down 10% under this Government and public confidence is up.

"We set the police a challenge - to cut crime while playing their part in reducing the country's record deficit.

"Thanks to the efforts of officers, the leadership of chief constables and our radical reform of policing that challenge is being met."